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Bench CEO and founder Ian Crosby out, company brings in president (BETAKIT)
“I told everyone I was ready to move on to the next thing,” Crosby told BetaKit in an interview.
RBC Capital Markets Global Market Outlook 2022
This year’s Global Market Outlook combines the insights of our M&A and Equity Capital Markets experts with the foresight of our Global Economists to determine what will drive deal flow in the year ahead.
For companies, ESG is a strategic imperative and an investment in the future. For investors, ESG has become a new dataset on business operation, management and resilience. How are companies using ESG to attract capital?
Global market perspectives to help you lead today and define tomorrow.
FinTech Bolt is raising funding, looking for a $14 billion valuation (BUSINESS INSIDER)
FinTech startup Bolt is still seeking a $14 billion valuation in new funding after its CEO’s viral Twitter rant about Stripe and Y Combinator.
Marking its sixth acquisition, Paystone acquires Canadian Payment Services (BETAKIT)
London, Ontario and Montréal-based payment processing provider Paystone has purchased Canadian Payment Services (CPS). Paystone’s acquisition of CPS follows the startup arming itself with $99 million last year to fuel its international expansion and acquisition efforts.
Fireblocks raises $550 million in Series E funding, now valued at $8 billion (THE BLOCK CRYPTO)
Fireblocks CEO Michael Shaulov said when the firm decides to go public, it could tokenize its shares rather than going for a conventional IPO.
Zafin acquires Fincad, adding analytics to its FinTech services (BETAKIT)
Zafin said it will now be able to offer pricing and advanced analytics solutions to institutions across all segments of banking, including retail, corporate and commercial, and capital markets.
Brazilian FinTech Creditas lands $4.8B valuation and Fidelity as an investor after revenue jumps in 2021 (TECHCRUNCH)
It’s a robust start to a new year that follows one which saw venture investments into FinTech startups in Latin America skyrocket — to over $13.2 billion in 2021 compared to $2.3 billion in 2020.
Wealthsimple launches green ETF on the NEO Exchange (BETAKIT)
“We are increasingly re-evaluating our existing investment products to find ways to improve the availability of ESG [environmental, social, and corporate governance]-investing options available to our clients,” said Ben Reeves, chief investment officer, Wealthsimple.
Wealthsimple founder says Canada should ‘plant a flag’ in crypto (BNN BLOOMBERG)
Katchen said he doesn’t take a view on the long-term value of any particular cryptocurrency, saying that Bitcoin could become a reserve currency or “could not be anything of value ever.”
Toronto shattered venture funding records in 2021 as city grew accustomed to billion-dollar quarters (BETAKIT)
Investment in Toronto tech grew 400 percent in 2021, according to data from briefed.in. In Western Canada, British Columbia’s tech sector reached new heights last year, and Calgary saw strong results as deal volume in the region almost doubled. Elsewhere, Montréal saw its tech funding grow steadily, while Faire and Applyboard accounted for 85 percent of all capital raised by Waterloo Region startups in 2021.
Facebook’s cryptocurrency venture to wind down, sell assets (WALL STREET JOURNAL)
Diem Association is selling its technology to crypto-focused bank Silvergate Capital for $200 million.
Apple to let iPhones accept credit cards without extra hardware (BNN BLOOMBERG)
The company has been working on the new feature since around 2020, when it paid about $100 million for a Canadian startup called Mobeewave that developed technology for smartphones to accept payments with the tap of a credit card.
Shakepay secures $44 million Series A led by QED Investors to roll out more Bitcoin products (BETAKIT)
To date, the startup has grown to serve over 900,000 Canadian users with only $1 million CAD in venture financing. But over the past year, Shakepay co-founder and CEO Jean Amiouny said the company realized “the opportunity is much, much bigger” than it initially thought.
Sam Gharegozlou’s unlikely and inevitable journey into politics starts now (VANCOUVER TECH JOURNAL)
The Dapper Labs co-founder teases a future in politics, but one could argue it’s already started.
With Cosmos, Ethan Buchman wants to solve one of the toughest problems in crypto (THE LOGIC)
The ecosystem, co-founded by Buchman, is worth US$125 billion and powers some of DeFi’s most popular apps and blockchains.
